Cheater

Apathy.. is the moral destruction of the United States. It's not homo's after all!

I've mentioned that I like competitive on-line gaming. It's a real blast, and is a great way to take up some hours in the evening. So, I was reading some news on gaming, and I came across this editorial about cheating in on-line games.

In short, it makes me crazy. I realize that in the "real world", one shouldn't expect a level playing field, despite claims to the contrary. But, in an on-line game, the programmers should be able to prevent cheating. In my experience, I've seen a ton of it, and it's maddening because I refuse to cheat (as any self respecting liberal would refuse). Unfortunately, it's like anything in the digital world - whatever it is, it can be cracked.

Here's a bit of of the editorial. It's not just politics. It's every aspect of our lives.

What’s even more disheartening is that there seems to be a culture of proud cheaters rising up. The myg0t clan is an example of this. These people use names like “Kiss_My_Bot” and “My Rocket Has Frequent Fragger Miles”. Ok, maybe I made that last one up and it really has nothing to do with cheating, but “frequent fragger miles”? Come on, that’s hilarious.

These people are also surrounded by a group I like to call “cheater lackeys”. These are people without the intelligence or motivation to download their own hacks but appreciate what the cheater is trying to do. They can usually be found on the team with the cheater, kissing the cheater’s ass, repairing the cheater’s vehicles, and attempting to shout down any negative thing typed in the hacker’s direction. The cheater lackey is the type of person who wouldn’t be considered for the manager position at Burger King because he or she is too busy, and too good at, running to the manager and telling on the other employees. “Mike ate a slice of cheese!” “Sarah drank a MEDIUM soda and you know how staff is only allowed to have SMALL sodas!”

But I digress from the point.

This new trend of treating hackers with indifference instead of anger and this new breed of cheater who is proud of the act instead of ashamed of it are some things that have me shaking my head.

Sure, right now a lot of us care about the cheating issue, but we can’t be bothered to comment on it. Right now there are only some cheaters who parade around flaunting the act, but soon that number will grow and why not? No one is going to leave the game or toss some verbal zingers when “HaCkY SACKED” starts getting headshots with the shock rifle from across the map. Soon we won’t care about cheating at all

I can’t wait. In twenty years they’ll be two markets. They’ll be a video game market and then they’ll be the cheating enhancement market. “Hey, what are you using to cheat in Half-Life 4? Really? “Pussy Playground 3000?” I’m using “Poo on Ethics and Moral Conviction 3.1.7
[...]
What’s my point? We are all aware that there are cheaters out there, but we also need to treat the cheating issue like a new one. We need to react like this is the first time we’ve seen someone kill the entire counter-terrorist team in thirty seconds. We have to act like this is a new and fresh issue before it goes from being an old issue to no issue at all. ”

Cheater lackeys indeed.